December 9, 2009
OPEN Forum Message
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Over the past year, I’ve shared many stories from business owners about what they’re doing to be more resilient, from moving to virtual offices to finding production efficiencies to using social media for marketing. And while I didn’t specifically mention it in those articles, there was a recurring theme of keeping employees happy. As many entrepreneurs have told me, having the right people in place is crucial to recovery.
To learn more about what companies can do to boost employee morale, I spoke to Peter Hill, CEO of Bailard, an investment firm in Foster City, Calif. Given that their industry has been, as Peter said, “in the thick of the economic crisis”, you might expect morale to be under pressure. However, Bailard has been honored by The Wall Street Journal and Winning Workplaces as a 2009 Top Small Workplace.
When I asked Peter what he felt contributed most to this, he said, “open communication.” In the Fall American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor, 23% of business owners said more regular communication about the business was key to boosting employee morale. For Bailard, though, open communication has been at the core of how they do business:
· Open books: Employees own 81% of the firm and they share company financials – including salaries. The reason: “When people know what you earn – you have to earn it. It keeps managers accountable and it gets rid of a lot of resentment and wondering who makes what.”
· Open space. “The way to get the best out of people is to give them the best environment. We have no doors on offices so as to facilitate communication and help get rid of some of the political hang-ups. And the open space helps to get people from different teams talking, which has helped foster new ideas.”
· Strong client communication. “We felt strongly about providing reassurance and being up front with clients. Some institutional clients have told us other investor managers are in hiding, but we’ve actually increased the number of client meetings and have instituted a new series of conference calls for clients, where members of our investment team talk on pre-selected topics.”
Their strategies have been paying off: They have a 98% retention rate among their advisory clients for the past 5 years, and the average number of years their employees have been with them is 13 – longer than any other company on the Top Small Workplace list.
Regarding their hiring practices, Peter shared with me, “We always want to hire the best, smartest person, not just the person who can do that job. This means they might be harder to manage because they have so many ideas, but that’s how we grow as a company.”
I also asked Peter what he’s most proud of, and he told me about the three Lipper Fund awards Bailard has won (for excellence in investment products). “It shows that a small firm can compete with much larger companies and that you don’t need a ton of resources to be successful. You just need the right ones.”
I congratulate Peter Hill and Bailard on their awards and thank him for sharing his story. If you have a networking or leadership story you’d like to share, please e-mail me at marcy@openforum.com. I also invite you to follow me on Twitter @marcyshinder and OPEN Forum via @openforum.
For more information about Peter Hill and Bailard, you can visit their profile on OPEN Forum or their Web site.
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Jill Fehrenbacher 2 years 5 months and 12 days ago
This is a fantastic article. Openness is one area in which larger companies simply can't compete with small business. It's definitely one of the central pillars of the way I operate as a small business owner, and frankly, I couldn't see us succeeding any other way. Managers everywhere should take note: hire trustworthy employees and share information.